Department for Exiting the European Union

European Union Intellectual Property Office

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what plans the Government has to ensure the maintenance of rights of representation before the EU Intellectual Property Office for UK legal professionals when the UK leaves the EU.

Chris Heaton-Harris: We recognise that our new relationship with the EU means that we will no longer be members of the Single Market and will therefore have a different relationship with that market from the end of 2020.We want to facilitate continued cross-border provision of legal services between the UK and the EU. That is why we are proposing specific provisions for legal services, including permitting joint practice between UK and EU lawyers.We will work closely with the legal services sector as well as consumers to prepare for these new arrangements.In the meantime, we are working with the EU to ensure that the Withdrawal Agreement allows UK practitioners to complete pending proceedings if they are representing clients before the EU Intellectual Property Office at the end of the implementation period.

Borders: Northern Ireland

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what progress he has made with his counterparts in the EU on the prevention of a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland as a result of the UK leaving the EU without remaining in (a) a customs union or (b) the single market.

Mr Robin Walker: We are working at pace with the European Commission to secure a future relationship that meets in full the commitments we made in the December Joint Report on Northern Ireland. This is reflected fully in our White Paper proposals, which would avoid a hard border, preserve the integrity of the UK internal market and Northern Ireland’s place within it, and preserve North-South cooperation in line with the Belfast Agreement.It is rightly the priority on all sides that those issues should be resolved through our future partnership. But we remain absolutely committed to agreeing a legally operative backstop in the Withdrawal Agreement alongside a framework for that future relationship. We have already agreed legal text with the EU on maintaining the Common Travel Area and associated rights and on protecting North-South cooperation. We have put forward an alternative proposal on the customs elements of the backstop, the Temporary Customs Arrangement, that would only come into force in specific and narrow circumstances. We are now intensifying discussions on both fronts as we look ahead to reaching agreement in the autumn.